Landscaping In Fast Motion

Update: Things are really picking up with the Habitat For Humanity showhouse (ahh! the foundation is being laid and framing starts next week!) so there will be some Wednesdays without an afternoon post. Thanks for understanding!

Fall is the best. It’s my favorite (well, that and ). I love it because the weather rocks my socks and most years we’re treated to several weeks of beautiful fall colors. Yet somehow we always find ourselves rushing to accomplish something each autumn. One year it was trying to sell our first house before the leaves fell (along with our curb appeal). Last year it was cramming things in before setting off on our book tour. And this year it has been trying to grow grass in our sad excuse for a front yard.

I know, I know – landscaping posts aren’t always that exciting. I know I’m weird for browsing so much. But we’ve crammed about two months worth of progress into one post in the hopes of making it a bit more satisfying than “hey, we threw down some grass seed. Doesn’t it look… seedy?”

The shot above is actually from this summer, right before we asked a landscaper who was working a couple of doors down to level out some ground stump piles leftover from having a few trees removed (more on that in this post). That quick leveling job set us back a mere $60 and gave us a grass-seed-ready front yard. Or so we thought. The only issue with that one area of leveling is that it revealed that the rest of the yard wasn’t well graded at all (those freshly flattened spots were surrounded on almost every side by low points that collected water during every rain). So we had to accept that our yard wasn’t as ready for seeding as we had originally thought. Le sigh.

We contemplated just dumping a few bags of topsoil down and calling it good, but we (well, mostly I) kept having the nagging thought that it was going to annoy me for years to come if we didn’t just do it right the first time. I eventually got Sherry on board with the idea of having some dirt delivered and getting the whole area properly graded, something we acknowledged was a possibility in this post, but were still a little reluctant to dive into until we saw how bad the yard was after a heavy rain.

So we decided to just pull the trigger and do it right once instead of working to establish a lush yet bumpy grass yard that we’d later need to redo. Yay, right? Except we couldn’t find anyone who was available to do it. It was late September by this point and every landscaper and dirt delivery service seemed to be booked up already (we called at least ten people – even some folks from a few towns over). We had all but given up on the entire idea when, by some miracle, the original landscape guy (Steve) who did that quick little flattening session called to say that he could squeeze us in that weekend. Huzzah! And then a miscommunication got us pushed off to the following weekend. Urgh! And then a week of heavy rains bumped us back another weekend. Double urgh! So it wasn’t until the Bowers visited in mid-October that they finally arrived and we all gathered outside to watch the main dirt-centric event.

Steve assessed how much topsoil we’d need based on the size of of our yard and how much grading was necessary to leave us with something nice and flat (no more swampy low points). This was just one of two heaping truckloads that we got. Yes, there were about five car-sized dirt piles.

With that much dirt, there was no way Sherry and I would be able to get things done with a wheelbarrow and a rake, so we let Steve the landscaping guy go for it instead.

This is the part the kids enjoyed watching the most – although Clara played shy and hid behind the railing for a good portion of it.

Steve had suggested that we mark off what would become mulch beds so that we didn’t waste dirt (oh the precious dirt!) in areas that wouldn’t be getting grass. So a few days before, Sherry and I used a hose to plan out some curvy beds around some of the tree groupings. A hose is nice to use because you can bend it and move it around until you like the shape, and then when you like the look of things, you can trace its shape with some marking spray to outline those future beds. We won’t actually mulch them ’til spring, so this is the last we’ll speak of them until then most likely. Shhh, these are the mulch beds that shall not be named.

By early afternoon, the yard was looking gorgeous. Okay, I realize a bunch of dirt doesn’t really deserve the g-word, but it was really exciting to see the whole area smoothed out and no longer spotted with erratic splotches of moss, weeds, and mud (that dry looking area between the two trees is going to be a mulch bed, where we’ll add more plantings someday). Rain was in the forecast for that afternoon, so Steve recommended that we get the grass seed down ASAP so that it could sink into the fluffy topsoil before the precipitation matted it down into more solid dirt (that’s less ideal for growing grass since you want the dirt to be soft when the seed takes root instead of compressed and rock hard). You can see a single track mark from our broadcast spreader when I was just starting to put down some grass seed in this photo below:

One of the reasons that we got so much dirt delivered was because we wanted to take care of this area that we affectionately call The Wetlands in the backyard. I know it looks like seed-ready dirt from this angle, but it was suuuuuper unlevel. It basically turned into an 8″ swamp after every rain (there was about a 12″ drop from the walkway to the area in the middle of this dirt-hole).

Here it is with lots of dirt filling in that entire gulley (after I had spread the grass seed).

And now, through the magic of the Internet, let’s fast forward about three weeks when I snapped this photo of things starting to come in.

About a week later it’s even more filled in (this shot was taken a few days ago). We got a much later start on this whole seeding thing than we had hoped, so we feared we might’ve missed the boat entirely, but it has slowly been doing its thing. Phew.

In our past experience (our first house had an all mulch front yard that we seeded from scratch), we’d never gotten thick coverage after just one season of seeding. So while it should still get even more filled in than what we have now, we’re planning to overseed next spring (and maybe again in the fall) to finally get a lush lawn back there. As for our tips for seeding, now that we’ve done it a few times, we like to use a broadcast spreader to drop the seed and then we just water it everyday for around 15 minutes with a broadcast sprinkler to establish it (we like to do it in the early morning when we wake up, just so we remember).

You might also notice a few more evergreen shrubs appearing in that “Progress” shot above. They’re our first step in trying to reclaim a bit more privacy back there – especially in the winter once the trees are bare. When we bought this house we knew we’d have to add some more evergreen trees to block the view of some other houses through those woods, so we told ourselves that each fall we’re going to buy a few good screening trees and shrubs in the hopes that we’ll eventually have year-round privacy when they all fill in.

These are from a local nursery (Great Big Greenhouse, for any locals who are wondering) and we just met with one of their all-knowing garden guys who recommended them for us based on our criteria: evergreen, deer-resistant, partial shade, and size (they’re all eventually supposed to grow somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 ft x 10 ft to create fence-like privacy when it’s all said and done). You can’t tell in this photo, but they’re staggered by about 6′ (they’re not all in the same line, so they should overlap in front of or behind each other instead of smashing into each other as they grow.

They were having a fall perennial sale so we scored them for 40% off and delivery was only $25. They also come with a one year warranty, so we’re hopeful that we can keep them alive, but it’s nice to know that we can return anything that doesn’t make it and grab something else that might work better. So far, so good, though. Oh and the wax myrtle is a native plant (we love working those in whenever we can) and it smells really good, so we hope to add more of them around the rest of the backyard as we continue screening things over time.

As for our planting tips, we’ve had luck digging holes that are twice as wide as each plant’s root ball, but only as deep as the root ball itself (sinking a tree too low in a hole is one of the ways you can really mess things up for it down the line). Digging in those big Nellie Stevens was no joke (it’s hard to tell from these photos, but they’re each about 7′ tall) but once you get them in the ground, just remembering to water them seems to be all they need to do well.

But back to grass. And back to the front yard. Here’s what it looked like this summer…

…and here’s what it’s looking like now!

Like the backyard, it’s not fully grown in yet – but things are looking waaaay better out there. The pictures really don’t do justice to those mounds and valleys in the before shots, but it’s so much flatter and more mower-friendly now, which is a huge relief – especially since we don’t have any more little swampy spots after a big rain.

Those giant loads of topsoil were $750 and the grading was $250, which is certainly more than I ever pictured myself spending on dirt (and the main reason that Sherry had trouble getting on board with the plan). But having seen the difference it made (and will continue to make) in our efforts to liven up this home’s exterior, we’re both convinced it was money well spent. Now if only there weren’t a bazillion leaves falling on the lawn every two seconds. Don’t these trees know our baby grass blades need sunlight? C’mon!

Is anyone else doing any major front and back grading or seeding? How thrilling is it to see those little green sprouts poking out of the dirt? It never gets old.

Thanks so much Paloma! We still say “do we really live here?” sometimes. We can’t believe we finally found a house we could afford in this awesome neighborhood that we drove through for years just looking at all the houses and saying “someday!”

The progress looks amazing! And I would like to say, I love the landscape posts! Not boring at all. Our yard is a mess. We can use all the tips, inspiration, and tested methods possible. Keep them coming! Thanks for always including prices. It helps to what such improvements might cost. :)

Kudos for earth moving! We’ve been doing a massive amount of excavation work in our yard – which is expensive and hardly a jaw-dropping before and after progress to people who aren’t very familiar with them. So from someone who understands, HOORAH!

Yay for leveling! Our yard is a series of canyons and hills…maybe we’ll fix that one day.

It’s too late to seed grass over here, and we’ve decided to give up our front lawn due to almost constant drought conditions here in KS–I can’t spend a fortune watering! Anyway, our yard is covered in construction debris right now, so we’ll be waiting until spring to begin our no-mow lawn. We have, though, raked leaves into the garden beds and topped ’em with compost to prepare for spring plantings. I love working in the yard!

We had geo-thermal installed last spring, so our side yard was all torn up. We had to let it settle naturally, but it was finally time to get it graded. We had a professional do the grading and then my husband and I seeded. We have teeny tiny baby grass growing, hopefully it’ll survive it’s first Michigan winter!

1. it looks fantastic. so jealous of your huge, flat, front yard. 2. i just had the most fantastic idea to send in photos of our front yard to get your opinions instead of sending you a space from our interior. our front yard definitely has me scratching my head most days…so this will be happening! seriously, thanks for the constant inspiration!

Have you guys ever thought about getting a live Christmas tree that you can plant after Christmas? It might be a fun way to add some more evergreens to the back yard, and also a fun way to remember each Christmas! My husband and I have talked about doing this, but we need a house first : )

I love that idea! We saw some at Home Depot but it wasn’t clear what they need once planted (ex: full sun wouldn’t work for our yard, but part shade would be awesome) so I keep meaning to research a bit more and try that!

My grandparents did that for many, many years…my grandmother had to tear up most of the Xmas tree grove this summer to put in a mandated sump pump treatment basin, and she cried. But I didn’t mean to say that in a sad way — more that it was just so special to them over the years!

I think Christmas trees don’t usually need full sun because they shade each other in forests, right? That would be my logic, anyway. But I’ve turned out to be a bit of a black thumb, too.

Thanks for this post! Our back yard needs regrading and weed-killing (I guess a tiny bit of grass would be killed in the process ;)), but so far we’ve just done the bags-of-dirt approach. It’s a big mess of almost-good-enough-but-really-not, so it’s really nice to see how it can look when you do it the right way. The yard is all tied up in questions of whether/when we build a patio, too, and it seems like talking about it just leads to endless circling about the patio decision…argh. So we just end up putting it off some more.

I wonder if it was a big pain to have everything dead/dying for awhile? I saw in a previous comment that you urged someone to go ahead and work on improving their dirt over the next year, and then reseed in the fall. We know we should be doing more with compost or compost tea to give grass a better chance of survival, but haven’t done much. We should probably take that advice — put down some soil additives (our clayish soil is super acidic so needs some lime, I think) and focus on gently killing stuff to get ready for unkilling it later. It just sounds so depressing to work toward a dead-greens and dirt yard!

It sure is amazing how much effort and money these simple outdoor landscaping fixes cost. We’re trying to do as much as possible outdoors before the ground freezes and my husband and I can’t stop talking about how many hours we are putting in and achy muscles happen as a result, lol. Your decision was a good one, judging by the after pics. Looks fantastic! :0)

Thanks Julianne! I keep saying to John “don’t you wish you could just paint bushes and grass in like you paint walls for that instant gratification inside?!” – turns out it doesn’t work that way! Gotta buy them and plant them and make sure not to kill them! Ha!

Ahhhh! That sounds like THE BIGGEST JOB! As for Great Big Green House, they tend to have specials that put their plants under Home Depot or Lowe’s prices and still warranty them for a year and have more knowledgeable and available staff that specializes in planting/gardening/etc. So we love going there when they’re having a special (their full prices tend to be a bit higher, but the quality is awesome, so the jackpot is to catch a sale). If you sign up for their mailing list you get 20% off that day and then you get emails about all of their sales, which seem pretty frequent.

Holy Moly..yall are really tackling some big & expensive projects in your first year! Does it freak you out? I would totally be freaking! Still, gotta love that the after effect and the labor savings. Definitely money WELL spent!

Yes! My neck was totally red and blothcy just thinking about this project. I said no about ten times to John and just said we have to do it the cheap way this year but he convinced me that ripping up a lumpy yard later would just be spending more to redo something, so eventually I gave in. In the end, he was totally right. I just try to remind myself that buying a fixer upper usually means spending some serious loot those first 6 months after moving in (we did the same thing in our first house, which was in a similar state to this house) – but that hopefully lays the foundation for all of those less expensive updates that we can build onto that foundation if we lay it right (like mulching the beds and transplanting things and slowly adding flowers and shrubs over the next few years). Here’s hoping!

By the power of the internet, instant gratification! Nice. I know from experience, this one post involved many hours of thought and work. Good Job!

and – this is the main reason people shouldn’t max out their bank accounts when they buy a house. you’ll need and WANT quite a bit of cash actually to do some things to the house. even a brand new house. it’s just a fact of life.

In our area it’s probably most common to start grass from seed since it’s a lot less expensive than sod (those squares of grass) in this area. Of course sod is instant gratification and in some areas it’s necessary, so it’s an awesome option too, but we’ve turned two dirt-filled and weedy yards into grass just by going the seed route, so we’re grateful we were able to skip those pricier sod purchases.

The yard looks great and it was totally worth paying someone to do it right the first time. I’d equate something like that to having roofers do your roofing.

Our yard/curb appeal needs so much help! We recently paid a roofer to remove an old giant antenna from our roof and it was funny how satisfying it was for something so mundane…probably mostly because I was checking something off a 4 year old list (how long we’ve been in our house)!

I love landscaping posts, even though I live in a condo. But, even there, our association, just like for single family home, has learned that landscaping is a huge component of property value, besides just making a home more pleasurable to live in. I believe the rule of thumb for a single family home is to plan to invest at least 5-10% of the home’s value in landscaping, especially for a new home.

I do know it hurts to look at those landscaping budget estimates, though (I’m on the condo board).

We’re building a house and just had the final grading done, and are having soil & seeding done this weekend. This seriously brrr-worthy weather we’re having makes it clear it’s too late to be seeding (we’re in NoVA), but the county is making us seed before we move in so we’re stuck doing it now regardless. Very jealous of your pretty bright green lawn progress!

I have the worst backyard ever. It is so lumpy bumpy that I’ve found tennis balls in the “valleys” after I mowed the lawn and the tennis ball was not touched. It’s a real ankle breaker. It’s a lot smaller than your yard so it hopefully won’t cost as much as yours but I need to do the same grading and I’ve been putting it off.

I need to get the giant willow and purple plum pruned first. One big, expensive project a year, right?

Yes, I’m the same way! Pace out those expensive outdoor projects! Hope yours is nice and cheap to deal with (my tip would be to try to do it not in the fall since landscapers are so busy and the prices might be higher because they know you’re racing the clock).

A big THANKS for sharing the preparations for a healthy lawn. My husband has been a landscape contractor for close to 35 years and your posting of this process is spot on. Dirt is not cheap! However neither is your time and the money spent on grass seed, mulch and fertilizer! Let’s not forget about the water spent on producing your lawn. A few of his customers–only a few, since my husband convinces most of his customers the worthiness of topsoil–have regretted not investing in the expense of topsoil. The results of poor soil preparation result in patchy lawn with more weeds than you want to count. To cobat the weeds homeowners pour chemicals onto thir lawns and hope this will solve their worries until they come go understand they are in a vicious cycle with their bank account.
Extra kudos for calling out the best grass seed for your region! Fescue is good for drier–hotter climates. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have grass seed blends that are primarily perennial rye for cooler/wetter climates.
Overseeding next spring and fall is a wise idea too. Grass lawns–a crop that needs continuous devotion. We harvest our lawn for our neighbors horses!

Actually John, I think landscape posts are exciting, and useful. Something like this, as a new homeowner, I really could use help with! I think landscaping is natural to get into detail on in a DIY blog.
Today’s post into at least 5 interesting posts:
– deciding where the mulch beds would be
– getting the topsoil done
– shopping for evergreen bushes
– planting the bushes
– seeding the grass

I bought a house in March with an above ground pool in the backyard. I was able to sell the pool (and have the buyer remove and haul it away!). Then I filled the 18′ wide x 1′ deep hole with topsoil and seeded… I was very happy the grass grew in easily and full/thick! My best DIY project yet.

How far back does your lot go? Are you blocking your view into the woods, and providing nice hiding places for deer and prowlers in your backyard by screening far in front of your property line? (Not that I expect you to have prowlers, but I really like to be able to see the vast majority of my lot. It seems a shame to screen off places where Clara and the bun will love to play as they get older.

I do love a new lawn . . . yours is looking awesome for just having been seeded. And–freshly-spread, level, dark, lovely dirt is ab.so.lute.ly gorgeous! We’ve owned three homes with totally wild/weedy non-yards when we bought them, and new dirt is sooooo runway worthy. lol Trust me on this one. I know that of which I speak.

Speaking of which, here’s something I don’t know, but would love to: the basic dimensions of your house exterior and rooms. I know you posted a floor plan back after the new house reveal, but I’m lousy at guesstimating stuff like that.

To be spin-the-bottle-honest, your house is almost exactly what I want to build, and I have to be careful to keep my keyboard drool-free when you post exterior shots like you have in this post. ;o) I’m planning on white siding and a farmhouse feel, but the design is belissimo. I’ve scoured home plan sites, but nothing I’ve found is as lovely and (honestly) perfectly-dimensioned as this one. I srsly feel kind of like a creeper (I imagine, as I’m not a creeper in real life), saying this stuff and asking for measurements, but if I don’t ask, the answer will always be “no”, right?

And if the answer is no, then I tried, right? I must say . . . you guys are inspiring me NO END with this house. And seeing photos of that exterior just make my heart so happy. lol I’m so glad you were blessed with it for a home–it makes me smile to know you’ve got a place you love so much. :o)

You’re so sweet Annalea! Our lot is shaped like a baseball diamond, so it sort of follows the curve of those plantings. Where we placed those plants will basically be the front of the woods (where there are tons of deer ticks, so it’ll never be a place any kids play). Thankfully we have a nice big front yard, a grassy side yard, and the backyard full of more grass (so there’s a lot of play space) and we’re just screening the view of the back of a few houses and creating a natural boundary to keep Burger and Clara out of those tick-filled woods behind them. As for our house, you’re so kind! I’m afraid we don’t have those measurements for you, but we hear a rumor that there are blueprints for this house somewhere (either hidden in our house or housed by some neighborhood board somewhere) so if we ever get our hands on those I’ll scan those and email them right to you (I’ve written down your email in my notebook to remind myself). In the meantime, this house was built in the late seventies/early eighties and is called a colonial if that helps to hunt down online floor plans that might be similar!

I just wanted to say, I’m happy you mentioned buying native grasses. It would be awesome if folks we’re interested in starting to grow more food. I’m an urban Farmer in Minneapolis, and I’ve put around a 1/4 of an acre into food production (veggies, herbs, and flowers) and it has fed 13 families in the summer months.

If you or your readers start of with say just one raised bed of veggies, plant the good veggies that cost the most, peppers, tomatoes, kale, herbs, you can slowly build your way to producing a good amount of food in your yard, saving money, and spending time doing one of the best soul-serving hobbies out there. Also, if you mow your leaves, you can put them into a compost bin, and start making your own compost/soil that can help you build up your “dirt” in your yard. The smaller amount of grass, the less water usage and maintenance, planting really low maintenance perennials is the way to go, and it’s a lot better for the environment. Lastly, I’d plant some fruit trees for shade in privacy in your back yard. Where you are, you can grow a lot of fruit that we can’t up here, so go for it. For other folks who may live closer into the city, you can work with a youth group (boy scouts, girl scouts, church, etc) or some college students, to vegetable garden your backyard. They can do the care and maintenance in trade for harvesting your veggies for you, leaving you a delicious and bountiful basket on your back doorstep. :)

That’s amazing Corrine! Thanks for the info! We’ve had rain barrels and compost bins at our last two houses and have loved them! We even made compost tea one year! Here we have deer that eat everything, so a veggie garden or grove of fruit trees would be a big challenge, but I love the idea of folks without such hungry four-legged neighbors diving into that! In my dreams I have an orchard and a big amazing garden…

I hate when people are debbie downers, but I have to mention one small thing about privet. It’s an invasive species (the ones most often used in landscaping are generally native to Asia) and it’s been pretty mean to the local understory in many southeastern forests (outcompeting native species, generally growing like a weed) and efforts to clear it out have been underway in a lot of places. It’s probably not that big of a deal in a residential area, but you guys seem to have a lot of deer so I imagine you have some natural area around you and it could spread and choke out the native understory. To that end, I’d probably suggest more native evergreens in the future (again, sorry to rain on the parade. I had to fulfill my obligation as an ecology student and get that message out :) I’d also like to add that you guys rock).

Thanks Ashley! Some others have warned us of that too, so we’re actually planning to call the nursery and if they say it’ll spread in our area we’ll pop it out and exchange it for something less annoying!

I think it’s wonderful that you’ve shown the importance of a solid foundation for your landscaping. I’ve been gardening for years and learned the hard way that sometimes if you don’t pay up front to do it right, then you just might pay more on the back end to fix it. Proper grading can make all the difference in your landscape! Water drains well and plants and grasses thrive…. and that’s what you’re working for.

We don’t have any built-in sprinklers, but adding them was an expense we couldn’t undertake right now. Thankfully we learned that doing that down the line them isn’t very invasive (it no longer tears up your whole yard, they can essentially bore under the grass and lay the system without disrupting the whole yard). In our first house we didn’t have them but still had a nice lush lawn for years (once it was established the type of grass we use seems to be cool with dry summers and wet springs and falls), so here’s hoping!

My husband got a late start on overseeding the lawn (October 18), and then it got down to 30 degrees in Tennessee. Luckily little baby grass popped up anyway! He was so excited. He then showed me an article entitled “How Grass Seedlings are Like Babies”. :D

Also, we are very close to our neighbors in the back and have three gigantic holly trees that are beautiful and provide much needed privacy!

Somehow they feel a bit more relate-able and the before and afters can be so much fun. When you redo a room sometimes you get that ‘I can’t believe this is the same space’ result, but I really appreciate the before and after with such clear bones. As if creating a new space is easier than improving what you’ve got. Does that make sense? Anyhoo, I say keep the outdoor posts coming…maybe once its a little warmer!

We just recently cut sod and put it along a brick sidewalk we had put in. We couldn’t seem to get grass to grow. We’ve been working on other patches with seed. This might be a dumb question but what is over seeding??

Overseeding is just spreading it over a lawn that’s already partially established. So instead of tilling the soil (which would hurt the grass that’s there) you just spread it right on top and water it and things fill in nicely and get more dense.

Good luck Ashley! Some other houses on our street have the nicest grass so it was such a sad thing to come home to ours! It really does feel good to get it flat and seeded because we feel like we’re finally slowly getting closer to their pretty yards! Good luck with yours!

I had to forward your post over to my husband becuse this is what we have been thinking about doing. We just moved into our newly constructed house in August and come to find out, the developer stripped all the topsoil when he was creating the neighborhood expansion therefore we now have claylike soil that remains muddy after rain and a lack of grass. We also have a big ditch that wont grow grass and keeps filling up with mud after every rain event. Would you mind telling me how much it cost to add topsoil and regrade?

I am LOVING this post- I hope you always post outside stuff, big or small. I have to say it is the area of home improvement/DIY that I am least skilled at, but it makes me smile to see it done, and makes me want to enjoy the outside more as well.

This summer we rehauled our exterior after years of ignoring it- painted the exterior, replaced windows & window wells, built a retaining wall, planted shrubs all around and for privacy at the edge of the yard, cleaned out the 3-stall garage.

You don’t think it really affects how nice your house looks until you do it! I grin ear to ear now when I pull in the driveway. I was building the retaining wall myself… in october… in north dakota… in 30 degree temps. Still so so worth it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the retaining wall bricks were 50% off due to end-of-season, and our shrubs were 75% off too! Hope they make it to spring, I have the blackest thumb ever…